Saturday, 26 November 2011

Some good news and - Z doesn't do bad news. All good here.

Well, darlings, here's the good news. My friend Martina, who comments here, sent me a doctor's basic check-list for symptoms of Alzheimer's, and my local chum took it home and went through it with his wife. She then tested him. She got every question right and he just dropped one mark. The doctor has phoned, and said she needs treatment for her low thyroid problem and also offered physiotherapy for her joint problem. There are still some tests to be done, because the path. lab. seems to have cocked them up somewhat, but it's all looking very positive and my friend's anxiety is completely allayed. He's happy to accept that her tiredness and absent-mindedness in the evenings is caused by low thyroid and constant lowish-level pain, and that this can be put right.

So thank you so much for your concern and for pointing me in useful directions.

I've hit on a vein of nostalgia with yesterday's post. Oh good. Can't beat a bit of nostalgia. Although, in truth, I'm not going to claim that everything was better in the good old days. Ups and downs all the time, and would you honestly put the clock back? - bear in mind that you can't cherry-pick, you'd have to accept the entire package. I wouldn't, but then I'm so practical, darlings, I live in the moment and make the best of it. I can't go back anyway, so why hanker?

As Blue Witch says, we have shared memories. My friend Lynn, whom I've mentioned here before, was the only person I knew at school who grew up without a television - her father died when she was seventeen and her mother then bought one and Lynn promptly became addicted - but she would be one of the few who didn't grow up with Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, or Blue Peter if you lived in a more sensible household than mine. But there were many programmes where the memories cross the generations - everyone watched The Good Life, Morecambe and Wise, Dad's Army - millions of people, all at the same time on the same evening of the week. The last series I remember making that sort of impact was some twenty years ago, with The Darling Buds of May. "Perfick" became the stock expression of approval that year.

My point is, not that there haven't been some hugely popular programmes since, but I don't think that they transcend the age and social barriers any more in the way they did in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Strictly, I suppose, but then I don't actually watch that myself, so I can't really say.

I've been watching the Frozen Planet series and so has someone who sits near me at work. I've enjoyed going to work on a Thursday morning and discussing the programme. The first time in years I've been able to do that with someone.

Mind you I never watch TV in real time anymore, the programmes aren't on at the time I want to sit down, or maybe I just don't arrange my life around TV now that I don't have to.

I have low thyroid which is controlled by tablets. It certainly can make you very tired. The good thing, though, is that it entitles you to free prescriptions on medical grounds, and that's for ALL your prescriptions. Make sure your friend knows this, as it was the pharmacist who picked up on this for me, not the doctor.

Yes, it is good to be able to do that - and David Attenborough has been a unifying force on our tv watching for decades!

Thanks, AQ - my sister has the same problem too. And thanks for the tip, though my friend is over retirement age so gets free prescriptions anyway. I'm thinking dismally that, since pensionable age seems to get farther away the older I get, it'll be ages before I have free prescriptions. Not that I can remember the last time I needed one, mind you. Ten years, perhaps. Or longer.

I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than watch reality t.v.The comedy in the 70's and 80's is unparalelled, and, due to the PC brigade, will never come back.Who remembers 'Love thy neighbour', or ''Til death do us part'?

I hated 'Till Death Us Do Part' - it seemed to me, watching as a child, to consist of people shouting at each other. 'Dad's Army' is still repeated on BBC2 and it is still funny but most sitcoms from that era were awful and even the stuff you remember as being good seems horribly dated if you try and watch it now. I do still laugh at 'Blackadder' though, despite the fact that I can recite most of the dialogue without watching it. Actually, perhaps that is the trick - set your TV show, regardless of whether it is comedy or drama, in the past and that way it doesn't date as badly.

I think a lot of programmes had funny episodes but overall were quite lame - 'Only Fools and Horses' is a good example of this. Eveyone remembers the episode with the chandelier or the one with Del Boy falling through the bar, but most episodes of that show weren't up to the standard of those two.

This comment is nearly long enough to be a blog post - I'll shut up now.

My hisband's father was suffered from Alzheimer long time ago when there was few (almost non) information about that, and he was still quite young. My sons were little kids, so my familly was confused a lot. The big progress of medical science is amazing!

I somehow can`t see the programmes of today being remembered in 40+ years time or so, in the way we remember all these favourites which you mention which we enjoyed. There doesn`t seem any substance or real memorable humour about them - or maybe I`m hard to please?!

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Oh, what's the problem? This is hardly Great Literature. I'd appreciate anything taken from here being acknowledged, and I might change my mind if I'm suddenly proclaimed as the Literary Queen of the Blogosphere - but I probably wouldn't. Do what you like, just as long as it doesn't extend to defamation of anyone, even me.

Actually, you want to pass off what I say as your own, I might even be flattered. Let's face it, who cares anyway?